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The tour is inspired to Montalbano series tv. and There are plenty of handsome old towns in Sicily, but Ibla – the ancient part of a city that was spilt in two by the earthquake – looks as if a team of masons had carved the place out of a whole hill, like the world’s biggest sandcastle. It’s no less ravishing on the inside.
The television Montalbano, as portrayed by muscular Roman actor Luca Zingaretti, is, as any reader of the book will recognise, a close but not perfect fit for the older police inspector of the books. Camilleri himself has admitted as much, but as someone who, for 30 years, worked for RAI, the Italian state broadcaster that produced the series.
The inspector’s favourite restaurant, the Osteria of Don Calogero, is in reality La Rusticana (Corso XXV Aprile; 0039 0932 227 981; average £29 a head), a decent local spot with a lovely vine-covered terrace, though if you can afford to splash out you’ll eat better at atmospheric Locanda Don Serafino (via Orfanotrofio 39; 932 248 778; locandadonserafino.it; average £55 a head).